Fiber Lasers have become very attractive for use in lidar applications. This is due to a number of superior parameters that are characteristic of these lasers, namely high efficiency, small size, and low weight, making them suitable for space applications. Many lidar applications, such as differential absorption (DIAL) and resonance fluorescence, require narrow linewidth operation of the fiber laser (<<100 MHz). For example, the remote detection of CO2 could be facilitated by narrow linewidth erbium doped fiber lasers due to the presence of a strong absorption feature near 1572 nm that resides in the Er L-Band.
In pulsed mode, however, these systems are ravaged by the effects of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), substantially limiting the peak power available for narrow-linewidth systems [2,3]. Considering the low duty cycles required for a traditional pulsed lidar transmitter (˜ 1/104− 1/103), SBS substantially limits total average power and degrades system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).